The Instant Messaging Craze

The Instant Messaging Craze 文/Ciarra Chavarria(美) 我的一个中国朋友曾经问我，为什么我写给她的电子邮件句首不用大写字 母，这说来话长。 美国兴起在线实时信息传递也就是网上聊天的狂热大约始于五六年前，那时 我刚上大学。有一天，我的一个最要好的朋友打电话给我，告诉我下载一个“美 国在线实时信息传递”的聊天软件。当时我对她说的是什么还一无所知，但我很 快就明白了，没多久就对网上聊天着了迷，只要有时间我就上网聊天。我发现我 的好几个朋友都有了相同的软件。当我把越来越多的人加到我的“网友名单”上 时，其他人也在做同样的事。网上聊天真是越来越普遍，很快，“人人都在这样 做”了。 我的打字技能应归功于很多很多小时的网上聊天。然而令人遗憾的是，当我 的打字速度提高后，一切语法规则也都跑掉了。要知道，网上聊天的人有他们自 己的速记语言，语法并不重要，网上英语聊天者可以省略冠词、主语、代词等等， 聊天者几乎可以错拼或“重拼”任何单词，比如“Good”可以写成gud；略写特 别重要，“[I'll]be right back(我很快就回来)”可以写成“brb”，“No problem(没 问题)”可以写成“np”，说英语的网上聊天者为了省事还拒绝使用标点符号和 大写字母。句号和缩写符？不必要。大写字母？没用。当年我对网上聊天曾是那 么的上瘾，以至于今天我在写东西时往往还是不用大写字母——不论在计算机上 写还是手写。 渐渐地，网上聊天的狂热在美国降了点温，我自己对它的热情也是如此。虽 说我还用那个软件，那主要是为了便于和远方的家人与朋友保持联系。 之后我就来到了中国。 在这里，我发现对在线实时信息的狂热不是一种而是两种，第一种就是QQ，它让我回想起当年我在计算机上的痴迷。 因此，那个循环又重新开始了，我用上了QQ。我不会说多少中文，可我还 是看到中国人也有类似的网上速记语言，甚至他们用英语聊天时也是这样。比如， 我看到的第一个简语是“ft”，这是“faint(晕)”的缩写，可用在示惊讶的 地方。我还发现中国人使用同样的缩写形容笑，美国的Hehe,haha和heehee在中国变成了“呵呵，哈哈，嘿嘿”。还有很多很多的笑脸和头像用来表示各种各 样的心情和反应，从传统的“睡笑脸”、“疑笑脸”到“呕吐笑脸”、“战士笑 脸”，甚至还有SARS笑脸——至今我还没完全搞明白它。 在QQ之外，还有一种恐怕是更为流行的快速传递信息的潮流，你一定猜到 了——手机短信。 一开始我还不太明白，要知道，在美国，手机的用法不太一样，几乎没有“按 话务量多少来计费”的做法，大多数人都是签一个6个月或是一年的，很多 合同不包括免费的短信服务；而且，不管你打没打电话，每月也得交固定的费用， 手机只是使打电话变得更容易一些。我曾经试了一次短信，当我在收到话费单时 才知道，不仅往外发短信时价格出奇的高，收到别人的短信也花钱。 我在中国的头几个月没有手机，也就与之没有关联，但最近我买了一个手机， 才知道了手机短信是多么有用，以及其广为流行的原因。我承认当我走在外面或 坐在地铁里发送短信息时有点不好意思，但有谁不这样做？无论我走到哪儿，都 能看到人们在手机上收发短信。实际上，倒是很少看到谁拿着手机在讲话。 看来，无论我走到世界的什么地方，都无法逃避实时信息传递的狂热。显然， 这个潮流不会改变。然而，最终我并不对此抱怨，因为实时信息传递又快又便宜， 又简单又非常有趣。再说了，每个人都在这么做。(本文作者现在北京两所高校 任教) One of my Chinese friends asked me why I don't use a capital letter at the beginning of the sentences in my emails to her. It's a long story. The instant messaging craze began in America about five or six years ago. I was in my freshman year of college, and one day my best friend called me on the phone and told me to download "AOL instant messenger". At the time, I had no idea what she was talking about, but I soon found out, and it didn't take long before I was hooked on instant messaging. I began talking on line whenever I could. I discovered that several of my friends already had the same program. As I added more and more people to my "buddy list", others were doing the same. Instant messaging really picked up, and soon "everyone was doing it." I credit my typing skills to many many hours of talking on line. Unfortunately, as my typing speed increased, everything else went out the window. You see, instant messengers have their own shorthand language. Grammar isn't important. In English, instant messengers can leave out articles, subjects, pronouns, etc. They can misspell or "re-spell" almost any word. "Good", for example, becomes "gud". Abbreviations are particularly important: "[I'll] be right back" becomes "brb." "No problem," "np." English-speaking instant messengers also refuse to burden themselves with punctuation and capitalization. Periods and apostrophes? Unnecessary. Capitalization? Useless. My experience with instant messaging was so addictive that to this day I tend to forego the use of capital letters whenever I write -- on the computer or off. Gradually the instant messaging craze in America died down a bit, and so did my own enthusiasm for it. Although I still used the program, it was mainly for the convenience of keeping in contact with distant family and friends. Then I came to China. Here I discovered not one but two instant messaging crazes. The first, which brought back memories of my previous addiction to the computer, was QQ. So now the cycle has started again. I use QQ. I can't speak much Chinese but I can still see evidence that the Chinese have the same kind of separate instant-messaging language, even when they chat in English. My first word in this language, for example, was "ft". This abbreviation for "faint"[as in "I could have fainted" from shock] is used whenever there is a need to express surprise. I also discovered that the Chinese use the same kind of abbreviation for a laugh. Hehe, haha, and heehee in America become呵呵,哈哈and嘿嘿in China. And there is an extraordinary number of smiley faces and icons available to express every emotion and reaction, from the traditional "sleepy" and "doubtful" smileys to the "vomit" and "army soldier" smileys. There's even a SARS smiley -- I still haven't quite figured that one out... After QQ, there is another, perhaps more widespread, messaging trend. You guessed it: cellphone text messaging. At first I didn't understand it. See, in America cellphones work a little differently. There are very few "pay-as-you-go" plans, so most people sign a contract for a six-month or one-year plan. Many cellphone plans don't include free text messaging, and since you pay a monthly fee no matter how few calls you make, it's easier just to make the phone call. I experimented with text messaging once and found out (when my bill arrived) that not only did it cost a ridiculous amount of money to send a message, but it cost money to receive one as well! For the first few months of my stay in China, I didn't have a cellphone, so I wasn't affected. I recently bought a cellphone, however, and now understand how useful text messaging is and why it is so common. I admit that I have been guilty of sending text messages while walking outside or sitting on the subway. Who hasn't? No matter where I go, I see people on their cellphones, messaging. In fact, it's rare to see someone actually talking on their phone! So it looks as if there's no escaping the instant-messaging craze, no matter where in the world I go. And that's plainly not going to change. In the end, though, I can't complain: instant messaging is quick, it's cheap, it's easy and it's pretty darn fun too. And after all, everybody's doing it.